In a newly released report about China's environment, the World Bank said that though China's rapid growth over the past two decades has caused great damage to the environment, the Chinese government is capable of making major progress in addressing such environmental problems as water and air pollution and deforestation.

China's experience has proved that developing countries will be able to attain the goal of sustainable growth in the future if they make major strategic changes, the World Bank report said.

The World Bank report gave positive marks to China's success in three environmental areas. It said that China achieved all-round success in reducing the total discharge volume of industrial waste gases and water in the last five years of the 1990s.

The reported noted that China has reversed the trend of shrinking forest areas through massive investment in reforestation.

The report also said that China has turned around the trend of re-salinization of soil in irrigated areas through large-scale pre- emptive and rehabilitation projects.

Yukon Huang, director of the China Program of the World Bank, said that China's achievements in these fields were "unprecedented " for countries in similar stages of economic development as China.

The World Bank report was based on the joint contributions of ten Chinese research institutes, universities and non-government organizations. It assessed the Chinese government's efforts in protecting the environment over the past decade and put forward suggestions on environmental challenges that China has to address in the next 5-10 years.

(People’s Daily 08/15/2001)